


You’re Beautiful

by sspacemess



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Galra Keith (Voltron), Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt Lance (Voltron), Keith Gets Lowkey Tortured, Keith is Part Robot, Keith just wants to help, Klance-centric, Lance is Only Sick for Like.. a Few Mentions, Lance is dying, M/M, Nobody Dies at the End, Theres a Cute Ending so Its Okay!!, everyone is a mess, it’s based off a roleplay again!!!, omg guess what
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-10-24 12:45:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17704502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sspacemess/pseuds/sspacemess
Summary: Long ago on a mission Keith went missing, and only reappeared years later after the war with a half robot body.Since then Lance is actually dying with only a year left to live, but Keith sells himself in the name of science to help pay for surgery, even if that involves something much like torture.//literally not as bad as it sounds this shits fluffy at the end//





	You’re Beautiful

The last few years were hectic, to say the least.

The seemingly never ending intergalactic war was over, everyone living happily on earth and making their own living now they didn’t have to defend the universe constantly.

Well.. that was everyone except for a particular loved paladin.

It couldn’t of ever been guessed. Many years before the war ended they’d been on a simple rescue mission. Get all of the civilians to safety, fend of the Galra invading.

They’d done this a million times, and it had never gone so wrong.

There was a large explosion, making the teams communication lines crackle with static as they tuned back in.

They did a head count, and managed to get four paladins safely back. The red paladin? Gone. 

Keith had been assumed dead after months of searching, there being no trace of a body amongst the rubble but no other signs of him being alive either. It wasn’t easy to face, but it was all so real.

Fast forward back to peaceful life on earth. Though, nobody could exactly call it that.

Returning without Keith was hard for everyone even if it had been years, making sure to mention just how much he’d contributed to this goal in the speech at the Garrison was hard but necessary.

Dealing with it wasn’t great. And when people get stressed, they get sick.

The illness must of been alien related since it was nothing that humans knew how to fix, but with some heavy research and extremely expensive surgery, it could be done.

There had been some sort of connection between the red and blue paladin, even if it was unofficial Lance seemed to take the loss the worst. Having to handle this new illness along with coping with the still unfamiliar feeling of having no Keith around, Lance had slowly excepted his twelve months left.

Then things fell into a calming pattern, even with inevitable death ahead it wasn’t too bad. But that was only the eye of the storm.

Exactly seven years, including the strange fast space time years, after Keith’s disappearance the Galaxy Garrison got an incoming call from an unknown radio.

Their story sounded unbelievable, the slightly gravelly voice from the other end claiming that they were the dead paladin and refusing to give any answers unless the long disbanded team voltron came to him.

Which then further thickened the plot to this big mess of a mystery, nobody wanting to take any risks and all complying to packing inside of the small desert shack they’d been in at the start of all this.

After a proper inspection of a very alive Keith, with a very robotic looking body there was nothing more than tears and hugs and attempted explanations and more hugs.

He was still Keith.. but a little more metal than skin. His hair was longer and pulled back into a ponytail, still as pale as ever with light grey patches of metal running along different places on his body. There was still skin on his face, minus at the top of his cheeks, as well as on his arms, chest, thighs and lower back.

A shiny gold diamond-shaped hunk of metal sat in the middle of his chest, glimmering in the hot sun and clearly an important piece to his new getup.

Keith talked to everybody one at a time as not to overwhelm himself, his sit down with Lance being the longest.

They cried together, listened to what each other had been doing since and even shared a few small but lingering kisses.

Keith explained how he’d been found after the explosion by a small group of aliens that were tech dependent, who then helped rebuild a new body that acted more like a shell that kept him together. Filling Lance in on how he didn’t come back because he didn’t want to burden the team with his high maintenance exterior.

Lance explained his twelve month time limit, to which Keith was not happy about one bit. He’d originally tried to push himself away from Lance as to not get attached again, but it was too late for that as he couldn’t go any longer without those stupidly warm kisses.

In an attempt to get Keith to stop trying to think of useless solutions Lance showed him the paper with the amount needed to pay for surgery. And, of course, Keith managed to figure out a way around that too.

Earth didn’t have tech in their most worked on projects that he simply had on his body. Letting the Garrison run tests on him and take a look at it all would definitely earn him a hefty sum, and there was no doubt that they’d pay him straight up by covering Lance’s medical costs.

And when Keith set his eye on something, there was nothing that could change it. Even when Lance tried to tell him not to, since he’d only be treated like an inhuman object for science instead of a person, Keith didn’t listen.

x

Six months later and things were finally looking up. Lance wasn’t going to die anytime soon, but still was staying in the hospital wing of the Garrison so he could take the medication needed to fully get him back on track.

Keith often visited, but refused to talk about how he’d been going with testing, claiming that stressing out now would only make things worse. 

During these tests there was a small observation room with oneway glass, only a select few people Keith had said to be allowed in there besides the operators and guards. That was Krolia, Shiro, and Lance. The closest thing to family that he had and the people he was most comfortable with seeing him in such a state.

Lance was allowed to go and roam free a month ago, but was too caught up in assuring his family that everything was going to be okay and spending time with them to go and actually watch these tests.

But when he did, it was not pretty.

He had seated himself in the observation room, dressed in the familiar orange and white hospital gown as he looked on to Keith.

The room ahead was a headache inducing white, two thick metal poles going from the floor to roof that both of Keith’s arms were strapped to, along with his feet only just touching a smaller platform below him. It looked like some sort of torture device.

And even worse, it probably was a torture device.

There was a signal from one of the operators, and a bolt of electricity went up the two poles and immediately shocked Keith. It went on for around thirty seconds before it stopped and he slumped, taking deep breaths but soon pulling his head back up.

A worker in a white coat went up on the stand, holding a thermometer looking device onto the skin of Keith’s forehead and than the metal of his neck, jotting down the numbers before giving a nod to the operators.

It happened again, and than again, and then again. Each time it was clear that they were upping the voltage and time they shocked him for, testing the temperature to see just how much Keith’s body could handle and what it would do if it became too much.

With each new wave of electricity Keith couldn’t keep biting his lip anymore, heart wrenching sobs and yells of pain escaping him that were sure to leave his throat sore and voice crackly for the next few days.

Lance was near tears himself, feeling bad that he’d brought this upon Keith. Yeah, he was alive for good now but Keith was going through something too similar to torture.

After the last time Keith didn’t muster all his strength and force his head up, simply hanging there without moving. Lance went into a minor panic, worried that something was seriously wrong if they’d pushed Keith well over his limits. To the point that the boy was completely unconscious.

He only got through watching a second of the workers unstrapping him before he was storming out, finding the first semi-professional looking person he could see and demanding that they put Keith in a proper hospital bed with proper medical support.

Even when they’d agreed to set up a room for him, Lance didn’t stop. Blinded by his rage as he went on about how Keith still had human emotions and, even more important, human organs. That he reacted to being electrocuted like any other human being would.

x

Lance felt.. proud.

There was a sense of protectiveness in him now, gazing down at the smaller metal clad boy looking so fragile on the hospital bed despite the strength he probably still held.

Keith was stripped down to his underwear, the blankets hastily thrown off of him and a ice pack resting on top of his feverishly hot forehead along with another on the extra hot gold piece in his chest.

The room was dark except for a lamp next to the bed, making sure that Keith’s head wouldn’t hurt too much when he woke up due to the headache he was bound to have.

Lance had listened to lots of stories about Keith’s tech enhancements during his own recovery, and knew that when Keith either got super frustrated or stressed or just plain old overworked he’d overheat like a computer. If it wasn’t treated right away he would simply just shut down and pass out.

Which was what Lance had assumed happened before.

There was the smallest of movement in one of Keith’s grey hands, his finger twitching slightly that set off other twitches throughout his body. 

His eyes slowly opened, unfocused and tired and not doing much but looking at the roof directly in front of him.

“How are you feeling?” Lance asked in a quiet whisper, stroking some of that long black fringe from Keith’s face, the rest of his hair tucked into a bun so it wouldn’t make him any hotter.

“Stiff. Hot. My throat and head sorta hurts.” He mumbled in reply, making Lance overly glad that he could still respond to basic questions.

Gently as ever, Lance helped Keith to sit up while still balancing the ice packs, letting him lean against his side as he wrapped an arm around Keith’s waist to keep him close.

“I told you that it was a bad idea.. but yet you didn’t listen, and now you’re probably going to get sick.” Lance whispered, a worried frown on his face as he stroked Keith’s side, assuming that was a good move from how he relaxed into the touch.

“Only a little longer.. you’re doing good. A few more months of medicine and I can stop this.” He mumbled in reply.

“But you’re getting worse..-“

Keith wasn’t having any of it, tilting his head up to look at Lance, pouting in a gesture that they were both familiar with. Lance got the hint easily, leaning down to give Keith a sweet kiss, pulling back after a few seconds.

“We’re not even boyfriends or anything and you’re so needy for kisses.” He chuckled, kissing Keith’s hot cheek.

“Then can we..? Be boyfriends, I mean.. I’d like that a lot..”

Keith was wearing that cute hopeful expression, looking up at Lance like he was equivalent to the moon and stars and sun combined. Lance was absolutely weak for this boy, and wouldn’t pass this up for anything.

“Well,” Lance started, reaching to the table to grab a glass of water and hand it to Keith who had closed his eyes contently, “If you drink up and make sure that you don’t completely combust.. then I guess it wouldn’t hurt. It’ll be a lot better knowing that I’m the only one who gets to kiss your cute little face.”

“Not cute.” Keith mumbled, completely ignoring the glass of water in his hand as he pressed his face into Lance’s shoulder in attempt to hide his quickly building flustered expression.

Lance chuckled again, setting the glass back aside and pulling Keith into his lap to look at him in the eye, “You‘re the cutest. I love everything about you.. from your soft skin to the warm metal. You are beautiful, and I won’t stop telling you that until you decide to except it yourself. You’ve been through so much and done so much but you’re still here and stronger than ever, and I’m so proud of you for that.”

**Author's Note:**

> heaps of stuff was left out and i actually wrote heaps more details about everything but couldn’t be bothered fitting them in.  
> if there’s any questions you have about this au don’t be afraid to ask because I LOVE QUESTIONS


End file.
